The paper addresses the question, whether the increasing current account deficit has negative impact on American economy and society. Using data for American economy in years 1967 – 2005, it will be shown that perceived welfare effects, as measured by changes in Consumer Confidence, asymmetrically reflect changes in exports and imports. The provided VAR analysis allowed to filter out potential output and cyclical movements in endogenous factors and to describe the remaining error in terms of external trade volatility. Keeping information on exports and imports as external factors allowed to estimate a structure of the model, where the responsiveness of perceived welfare in respect to simulated changes in current account was studied. The provided analysis shows that opening the economy enhanced observed volatility of the Consumer Confidence, while presence of the current account deficit allowed to obtain superior welfare.
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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Labor and Demography with number
0512009.
Find related papers by JEL classification: F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Sims, Christopher A, 1980.
"Macroeconomics and Reality,"
Econometrica,
Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January.
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